Fideism (n): doctrine that knowledge depends on faith over reason.  Fundeism (n): doctrine that places amusement above all.  This will be my last Fun Friday update for this school year – they’ll pick up again in the fall, time permitting.  Here are your links for this week:
Social:

Scenes from the Gulf – The Big Picture has [...]

Foraminated (adj): perforated or pierced with small holes.  Funraminated (adj): shot through with comedy.  Here are this week’s links:
Language:

Language apps (1, 2, 3) – In this three-part post, Mrs. Jones, a second-language teacher from Britain, looks at iPod Touch applications useful for instruction and learning in another language.

Science:

Oil spill comparison – The Deepwater Horizon spill [...]

Focimeter (n): instrument for measuring focal length of a lens.  Funcimeter (n): instrument for delivering amusement to your eyeballs.  Here are this week’s links:
Oil Spill:

Deepwater Horizon resources – A teacher lists sites with updates on the BP oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
How bad could it get? – Article describing just how bad [...]

Faveolate (adj.): honeycombed.  Funveolate (adj.): funnycombed.  Here are this week’s links, unsorted:

Online collaborative whiteboards – K. Walsh reviews six sites online which allow you and friends to collaborate on a shared “whiteboard” space.  Might be fun to use with SmartBoards!
Posterazor – A service which will slice up large images so they can be printed on [...]

Fantasticate (v): to fantasize over something.  Funtasticate (v): to funtasize over something… here’s the links for the week:
Social:

Thailand – Two sets of TPB photos from Thailand (First, second) show the devastation that the recent protests have caused in Bangkok.
Lying kids do better – Because lying involves being able to hold two ideas in the head [...]

Foinery (n): fencing; swordplay.   Funery (n): wordplay.  Here are your links for this week:
Social:

Gulf oil woes – The Big Picture has a series of photos on the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.  As usual, they are excellent.
Red families vs. Blue families – Social consequences of the divide between the way red [...]

Felsenmeer (n): flat arctic area covered with angular boulders.  Funsenmeer (n): flat computer screen covered with arch comedy.  Here are this week’s links!

Afghanistan – The Big Picture’s monthly look at the lives of combatants and civilians in Afghanistan.
The Morning Guy – Interesting (and humourous) look at the brain science behind the workday and productivity.
CIA’s target [...]

funambulism (n): tightrope walking; show of mental agility.  Hey!  That word already starts with fun- … I guess that answers the question, “Where’s the fun in that?”  Here are your links:
Language Arts:

Challenged books – The ALA’s list of the most challenged books in 2009 is now available at Flashlight Worthy.  The reasons that some of [...]

Farraginous (adj): disordered; jumbled; miscellaneous. Funraginous (adj): pile of assorted amusements.  I only have eleven this week, so here they are, unordered:

BBC photo classes – The Beeb’s Wildlife Magazine’s “12-part series on the art of wildlife and nature photography.  Each issue [...] will focus on a different type of photography and demonstrate how you [...]

Filipendulous (adj): hanging by or strung on a thread.  Funlipendulous (adj): the thin thread that ties this definition to amusement (whoa, meta).  Here we go!
Social:

Old age – This is the elderly age.  As the article points out, “Of all the people in human history who ever reached the age of 65, half are alive [...]

Since tomorrow we are all off on vacation, I thought I’d do the links roundup thing today.  Here’s the list:
Social:

Afghanistan – The Big Picture’s monthly take on life in the troubled country of Afghanistan includes celebration and tragedy.
Letters to the President – Every day, President Obama reads 10 letters from ordinary Americans to get a [...]

fabulist (n): one who invents fables. funbulist (n): one who shares links.  Here we go!
Language Arts:

Reading together – Heartwarming story about a father and daughter who read together at bedtime for over three thousand consecutive nights.
Libraries – Librarian Sara Scribner argues that closing libraries (and in particular, school libraries) could prove disastrous for a generation [...]